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Ad check: Hawley on pre-existing health conditions

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)

Oct. 03--JEFFERSON CITY -- In the high-profile race for U.S. Senate in Missouri, a new ad for the Republican candidate says he supports forcing insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing health conditions.

In the 30 second ad, Attorney General Josh Hawley says, "Earlier this year, we learned our oldest has a rare chronic disease. A pre-existing condition."

"I support forcing insurance companies to cover all pre-existing conditions," the 38-year-old father of two added.

The first-term attorney general is referring to his son Elijah, who has a degenerative bone disease affecting his hip.

But Hawley, as the state's lawyer, also has added Missouri to a Texas lawsuit that would end the federal Affordable Care Act, which requires insurers to cover pre-existing conditions.

The case centers on Congress' reducing the individual mandate penalty to $0, starting in 2019. Hawley and the other states say this would render the individual mandate unconstitutional and invalidate Obamacare.

So how can Hawley say he supports covering pre-existing conditions while he is backing the lawsuit?

In a telephone interview with reporters Oct. 1, Hawley said he wants to first gut the law via the lawsuit and then replace it with an improved version when he gets to the Senate.

"We don't have to have ObamaCare in order to cover people with pre-existing conditions," Hawley said.

He also said he had no regrets about supporting the lawsuit, which has become fodder for his opponent, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, and her Democratic allies.

At a September debate, McCaskill said families would lose coverage for pre-existing conditions if the lawsuit is successful.

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In support of McCaskill, national Democrats have made pre-existing conditions the subject of an ad against Hawley.

"Why would Josh Hawley punish those whose only crime was getting sick?" says an ad from the Democratic Senate Majority PAC.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, an estimated 52 million adults age 18 to 64 have pre-existing conditions that would have led to a denial of coverage in the prior to the Affordable Care Act.

Polling released by Kaiser last month also found that a majority of Americans say insurers should be prohibited from denying coverage based on a person's medical history.

In addition to forcing insurers to cover pre-existing conditions, Hawley also has said a revamped health care law should end "sweetheart deals" for insurance companies, let them sell policies across state lines and let Missourians form health association plans.